medifast: let’s do this thing.

Exactly a month ago, I threw in the towel. I was less than a week from hopping on a plane bound for the literal opposite side of the world to see things my heart couldn’t fathom and my head couldn’t compute. Stress compounded upon stress and I felt like the proverbial camel must feel as he watches the straws pile up on his back, wondering which will be the one.

I made a decision for myself that I would have the month off of following my Medifast plan. There are 8 million reasons why this isn’t the best plan of action in general, but for me it was the temporary grace I needed to feel like I was going to survive the crazy that mid-August to mid-September held for me.

Naturally, Not Being On Plan quickly became Eating All The Emotions which shows me that I still have a long way to grow in the area of my relationship with food. The reality is, stressful seasons of life are not an excuse to eat and live in a way that makes me gain 6 lbs. Yea, you heard me. Six pounds in not as many weeks. I threw up my hands at the pressure of it all and as a result I have lost a precious amount of ground on my journey to a healthy weight. To be fair, I don’t know what the alternative would have looked like for me emotionally. At the time it sure seemed like what I needed to do for myself and my family – not the resultant over eating, just the freedom of not being on plan.

This time off has taught me a very important lesson: eating healthy is not for a season, it is for a lifetime. I will not always be on Medifast, but by the time I reach my goal weight and maintain it for at least a year, I sure as hell better have my self-control act together. I’ve understood that in theory before, but now I know the reality of it. I have some serious work to do emotionally, mentally, and physically.

In a completely different context, a wise woman told me recently to start where you are. I can’t go back and make myself find the balance between eating Medifast and over-eating for the last month, but I can take a stand right here and say let’s do this thing.

How am I losing that weight, you ask? Medifast! If you use the coupon code, OFAMILY56, and sign up for Medifast Advantage, when you order $250+, you’ll receive 56 free Medifast Meals and free shipping! (More details at the bottom of this post.)

Disclosure: I receive free product in order to evaluate and comment on my experiences on the Medifast Nursing Mothers Program. I will only ever tell you how I actually feel about this experience and the Medifast products. Pinky swearsies. I am supposed to tell you that the Medifast Program is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or illness and that any medical improvements noted while on the program are related to weight loss in general, and not to Medifast products or programs. K, you got that? Good. There will be a quiz later.

I think you look great. I had a twinge of jealousy yesterday when I saw the amazing picture of you sitting on the floor with your boys. You motivate me to lose the last twenty that I have been holding on to since my son was born. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You are an inspiration.

I meant to ask you how all this was going. Give yourself grace, friend. I think you made the best decision you could at the time and now it’s something to learn from. AND I thought you looked great this weekend! ;) Love you!

I totally get you, girl. I’m finally coming off a 2-month long plateau and re-motivated to put down the sweet “treats” and finish this thing. It took me 2 years to lose my baby weight from Baby 1; I’m nearly 5 months into post-Baby 2, and I am determined to finish these last 13 lbs (to pre baby 2…. 20 to pre baby 1 weight).

But you still look adorable — where is that sweater from, by the way? Gorgeous texture around the top! And great color with your hair!

I love her! It was so funny seeing you two on the world vision trip and then together last weekend. It felt like watching two friends from different parts of my life becoming friends :)

This is random- I’ve read your blog for a while, and never commented, but I’m friends with your college roommate Allison. I came across your blog randomly and died laughing when I came across your post about her and your first year of college!

You have inspired me to go back on Medifast to lose my baby weight. Glad to hear of their nursing mothers program as I am nursing my little one as well. I gave a shout out to you on my weight loss blog (a work in progress as I just started it). How did you go about getting the free products to write about your experience? I would like to do that as well. Thanks Allison!

this is my first comment here, so first I’d like to say how much I love your blog! I am humbled about all the adventures and projects you are taking on with two small children, it seems like your life is so exciting! And congratulations on your new pregnancy – I think you never wrote a formal post about it (maybe I missed it?), but you just mentioned it in your post about tearing down your roof – so congrats! Now I’m just wondering, are you on a diet while pregnant? So i guess you’re not trying to lose weight but just trying to eat healthy? Anyway, I wish you all the best for your pregnancy and I’m looking forward to reading about how your life evolves and about the third baby:-)
Best, Katrin (from Germany)

Ah! O, friend! I am not pregnant. :) I did mention climbing a ladder when I was pregnant in that post, but I was referring to back when we tore off our roof in 2010. I am not expecting a third baby anytime soon – but I’m glad to know you’d be excited and not just think I am the crazy. ;)

Oops, how embarrassing! So I totally misunderstood – that’s what happens when you don’t read carefully enough. I must admit, I was wondering how you managed to fly all the way to Sri Lanka while pregnant ;-) By way of getting to know each other, just so as to not be such an anonymous reader, I found your website through the Outta Jo, Onto You-Blog, I’m 33 (oh well, basically 34, from tomorrow on), and I live in Berlin w/ my husband and 20 month old daughter. I loved your post about nursing after your trip to Sri Lanka, by the way, especially because I’m also still nursing (not really that this was my goal, but my daughter just doesn’t want to let it go and I don’t want weaning to be a terrible experience for her and me). So it was interesting to read how you handled it – I had a similar situation when I went away for 3 days a while ago. You were lucky the pumping and hand extracting worked, I had no success with the pump nor with extracting by hand, and man, did it hurt on the last day! So anyway, I’m always glad to read from other long time nursing moms, it makes me feel less alone in it:-).